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Most Danes satisfied with EU membership, would vote against leaving: survey

A survey conducted on behalf of the European Parliament has found that most Danes are content with their country’s membership of the EU.

Published: 17 October 2018 11:15 CEST

Most Danes satisfied with EU membership, would vote against leaving: survey

Photo: Claus Fisker/Ritzau Scanpix

75 percent said Denmark's membership of the union was a good thing, while only 6 percent considered it to be a bad thing. 84 percent said EU membership was 'on balance' an advantage for Denmark.

The figures are the result of interviews with 27,474 EU citizens — around 1,000 people per member state — conducted by Eurobarometer, a public opinion survey carried out on behalf of the European Parliament.

According to the study, more member state citizens than at any time in the last 25 years currently see the EU as a good thing for their country.

Despite the apparent overall positive view, 50 percent of all respondents in the survey said they were not satisfied with the current direction of the political and economic union.

In Denmark, 43 percent said the EU should take a different direction.

That does not mean that Danes want to follow the path taken by the United Kingdom and leave the EU, however: 77 percent would vote to remain in the EU in a hypothetical membership referendum, the survey found. 14 percent said they would vote to leave, while nine percent answered ‘don’t know’.

A higher proportion of people from Denmark than other member state will vote in the next EU parliamentary elections, the survey also found.

76 percent of Danes eligible to vote said they would vote in the next EU parliamentary elections on May 26th 2019, the highest figure in any member country.

Only 56.3 percent of Danes voted at the last EU parliamentary election in 2014.

Anne Mette Vestergaard, head of the European Parliament’s office in Denmark, welcomed the result of the study.

“My aim is for us to be world champions at democracy in May next year, so it’s fantastic that Danes are already looking towards polling booths,” Vestergaard told Ritzau.

“Far too few Danes voted in the last EU elections, but this time things look promising,” she added.

READ ALSO:

Everything you need to know about next month's European elections in Denmark

Every five years since 1979, voters around the European Union have voted to select their MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) in Brussels and Strasbourg, with the number growing to 720 members in 2024.

Each country gets a number of MEPs roughly proportional to its population, with Germany, the EU’s most populous country, getting the most with 96 seats and Denmark getting 15 seats this year, up from 14 due to Brexit.

Choosing an MEP

A total of 169 politicians from 11 different parties are running for the European Parliament elections in Denmark this year.

Unlike in a general election, where you can only vote for the politicians who are in your constituency, here you can vote for any candidate, regardless of where you live.

MEPs aren’t supposed to act in purely national interests but instead are meant to have a Europe-wide view, which is why you should ideally vote based on what each candidate and party wants to do for Europe, rather than treat the European elections as a referendum on Denmark’s government.

Each MEP elected sits in the European Parliament in a party group comprising MEPS from other countries who share similar values, such as centre-left, far-right, or green, rather than sitting with MEPs from their own country.

Candidates

In the run-up to the election, the Danish political parties decide on who will be their spidskandidater (candidates heading the list) for the European parliament, and these people have the highest chance of being elected. The further down the list a name appears, the less likely that person is to be heading to parliament.

The spidskandidater are normally responsible for running that party’s election campaign and become their spokesman on European issues.

Here is a breakdown of Denmark’s 11 party’s manifestos and their top three candidates:

Social Democrats

The Social Democrats currently have 3 MEPs in the European Parliament: Christel Schaldemose, who has been an MEP for 18 years, Marianne Vind and and Niels Fuglsang. They are all running again, along with 7 other candidates, with Schaldemose pinned as their leading candidate.

The party wants Europe to focus on security, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, immigration, the environment and promoting non-toxic substances. They want Europe to work more together on the challenges of immigration but they want to keep autonomy on other matters relating to Denmark.

While support for Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s party is plummeting in national election polling, it is looking more hopeful for the EU election.

According to an opinion poll carried out by Epinion for Denmark’s state broadcaster DR at the start of May, the Social Democrats stand to get 20.1 percent of the vote in June, only a slight decline from the 21.5 the party won in the last European elections back in 2019.

With Denmark gaining an extra seat in the European Parliament following the UK’s exit, this means the party is set to get four MEPs, up from three in the 2019 election.

The Social Liberal party (Radikale Venstre)

The Social Liberal party promotes itself as Denmark’s most pro-EU party.

The party’s top candidate is 29 year-old Sigrid Friis Frederiksen, followed by Anne Sophie Callesen and Phlip Tarning-Andersen.

The party wants the EU to focus on climate change and reducing greenhouse gases by 65 percent by 2030, which is 10 percent more than the current target. They also want less pesticide use in farming. Their other main manifesto point is a call for less discrimination and more protection of people’s rights, such as the LGBTQ community and the right to abortion. They’d like the EU to have a bigger role than it has currently.

The party is currently set to win 7 percent of the vote, down from 10 percent in the 2019 European elections.

Moderates

Stine Bosse is the leading candidate, followed by Bergur Løkke Rasmussen and Tobias William Marney. Bergur Løkke is a current MEP, having been elected with the Liberals (Venstre) before changing to The Moderate party in 2023. He is the son of party leader and former Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen.

The party’s main campaign issues include peace and freedom in Europe, with joint purchasing and production of defence equipment. They want the EU to work on more green energy solutions, as well as on stronger border and immigration measures. The party wants more European involvement on these issues but thinks there is currently too much bureaucracy in the EU.

In the Epinion poll at the beginning of May, support for the party had fallen to 4.5 percent from the 7.4 percent the party had in a previous poll from March. This has brought it below the threshold of about 6.5 percent to get a seat in European Parliament.

Liberals (Venstre)

The Liberals’ main candidate is current MEP Morten Løkkegaard, followed by another current MEP Asger Christensen and Ulla Tørnæs, who has been an MEP in the past.

The party wants to focus on the defence and safety of Europe, working together with NATO. They want stronger border controls and a reduction in the administrative processes behing investing in green energy. They want Europe to work together on these things, but for the EU to have less influence when it comes to decisions such as the labour market in Denmark.

This is the party that came out top in the 2019 European elections, in one of the last triumphs for its then leader Lars Løkke Rasmussen, overtaking the Social Democrats to become the biggest Danish party in Brussels. But this year the party risks seeing the number of MEPs they have in Brussels halved from the four they won in 2019.

Conservatives

The Conservative’s top candidate is Niels Flemming Hansen. Number two and three are Marcus Knuth and Birgitte Bergmann.

Their top priorities for Europe are defence and safety, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, strengthening border control and climate change, speeding up EU green targets. The party would like a little less EU involvement when it comes to topics like working hours.

The party has won one seat or more in every European election since Denmark joined in 1979. But while the Epinion poll gave it 7 percent of the vote, it doesn’t have far to fall to lose its only seat.

The Conservatives are the only Danish party who sit in the powerful EPP block in European Parliament, giving the a seat at the table with the powerful German Christian Democrats, France’s Republican Party, and Spain’s Partido Popular.

Socialist People’s Party (SF)

26-year old Kira Marie Peter-Hansen is the party’s main candidate and current MEP. When she was voted in the last election, she became the youngest ever MEP at the age of 21. Rasmus Nordqvist is the number two candidate and number three is Villy Søvndal, the party’s former chairman and a former foreign minister.

The party’s main focus is on the EU providing more rules to protect nature, climate and ban harmful chemicals. The party wants the EU to reduce greenhouse gases by at least 65 percent by 2030, which is 10 percent more than the current target. They want EU rules for reducing water pollution and protecting nature and a ban on all harmful and hormone-disruptive chemicals.

The party has done well in the opinion polls so they will be hoping to meet expectations.

Liberal Alliance

Henrik Dahl is the main candidate, hoping to get the party its first seat in European Parliament. Mads Strange and Thorbjørn Jacobsen are the second and third choice of candidates.

The party wants to reduce the documentation demands and rules for smaller companies doing business and exporting to other EU members. They want less EU involvement in the Danish labour market, they want stronger border control and a contribution to defence and military material.

Danish People’s Party (Dansk Folkeparti)

Current MEP Anders Vistisen is the main candidate for the Danish People’s Party, followed by Majbritt Birkholm and Tobias Weische, who is currently political advisor to Vistisen.

The party is against a Europe-wide foreign policy but wants a Danish “strict” foreign policy that includes deporting foreign criminals. They don’t want the EU to expand and include more countries. They want to introduce a permanent border control between Germany and Denmark and want Denmark out of the Schengen Agreement, which allows free movement of EU citizens to travel, work and live in an EU country without special formalities. In the long-term, the party wants Denmark to leave the EU.

Denmark Democratics (Danmarks demokraterne)

Kristoffer Storm is the party’s main candidate, followed by Vivi Altenburg, Magnus Bigum.

The party would like the EU to have less influence on certain rules in Denmark, for example on maternity rules for men, women’s quota and border controls. They want physical barriers erected at borders for immigration control and they want the EU to be self-sufficient when it comes to energy, ammunition and food, rather than rely on Russia and China.

Red Green Alliance (Enhedslisten)

The party’s main candidate is Per Clausen, followed by Frederikke Hellemann and Nana Højlund.

The Red Green Alliance are the only left-wing party who are Eurosceptics. The climate is their biggest priority and they want climate-friendly travel options promoted within Europe, such as halving the price of interail tickets and having express trains and night trains between all of Europe’s big cities. They want more equality, putting a stop to tax evasion and economic crimes. They want the EU to recognise Palestine as a state. The party recognises the importance of the EU working together on issues like climate change but thinks it prevents Denmark doing more on some issues that are bound by EU rules.

Alternative

The party hopes their main candidate Jan Kristoffersen will become their first ever MEP. The second and third choice candidates are Karoline Lindgaard and Petar Socevic.

The party wants the EU to support more ecological farming and they want the EU to do more to protect wild nature on land and water. The party wants a focus on animal welfare, preventing battery farming. They are very much pro-EU and would like the EU to decide even more than they do currently.

It is unlikely the party will gain an MEP seat but they hope the election will increase their visibility among voters.

Who can vote

In EU parliamentary elections, nationals of all EU countries who reside in Denmark can both vote in the elections and run for office. Nationals of non-EU countries cannot vote or run in these elections

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